How To Hire For Your Business

June 2, 2014

Hiring employees is a costly procedure. It takes time, energy, and money. Besides that, you want to make sure you are hiring the right employees who work hard, fit in well with your company culture, and will stick around for a long time because firing employees has a much higher price than acquiring them.

Hiring the right employees can also be tough. It’s hard to tell through an interview the quality of person you are talking to and how hard they will work. For small businesses, employees make up the heart and soul of your company, so you want to make sure you have the absolute best people working for you. It is important to take a variety of factors into account when going through the hiring process. For example, you want to find a likeable, fun person, but you also need someone capable, smart, outgoing, and hardworking who won’t waste your time or money.

You must also remember that gaining more employees or even hiring your first employees will change the way your business operates and lead to a whole new bout of legal obligations, liabilities, paperwork, and expenses. It is estimated that the cost of recruiting, hiring and training a new employee is close to $4000. When hiring for your business, there are some key factors you need to take into account about your business and about your prospective employee. Here are some tips to help make finding the right employees simpler.

Recruit in the Right Places

Whatever industry you are in, find out where jobseekers for that industry are. For example, if you run a salon, it would be smart to check out Paul Mitchell – The School websites, school, and groups on LinkedIn. If you are in the tech industry, go to a hackathon or a demo day. Now more than ever it is easier to connect with people all over the world based solely on interests. Social media has made it simple to reach out to people, as well. Conferences are also a great way to attract the right people with the right skill sets through networking. If you are looking for accounting or general business talent, get involved with your local business school. Chances are the professors would love to have you come talk to some of their classes, and you can reach people on a more personal level.

Stand Out

The best way to attract the employees who will really fit in with your company is to show off your company culture. Start-up culture has swept the nation, and everyone now wants to work at a company like Google or Apple that has amazing everyday benefits offered to their employees. Here at Kabbage, we offer weekly yoga, daily catered meals, and most of all we all appreciate a good joke. Making sure these values are understood by your prospective candidates can mean the difference between a stuffy, uncomfortable work situation and a successful, fun one. Skills are great, but your employees must all exhibit the same kind of attitude and passion in their work or else they will never work together well. So make sure you are paying attention to the interviewee’s personality from the beginning. If it’s a good fit, you will know.Be Clear and Concise

Make sure you completely outline what the job entails. You don’t want to be vague, and then hire someone to find out that he or she cannot perform the way you wanted or expected. Be very descriptive when listing the open position on your website, Glassdoor, or LinkedIn. This means you need to outline what part this role plays for the company, what the person will be responsible for on a day-to-day basis as well as salary info, benefits, and prerequisites.

You should also be clear about how this position could evolve. You do not want to blind side anyone by giving them too much responsibility and stressing him or her out. Be very clear about the role this position plays in the company, what you are looking for out of someone in this position, and what they are supposed to accomplish.Seek Advice From Your Team

One of the best predictors of how well a new hire will do at a company is how well your current team gets along and works with him or her. Have multiple rounds of interviews until you get down to the final two, and from those two, bring in the team that that person will be working with to conduct the final interview. Doing so can ensure a healthy and happy transition.

Offering incentives for your own employees to refer people to your business is also a great way to find quality new hires. You can offer a cash bonus, gift cards, or even days off – whatever the catalyst finding people that your current team enjoys working with can really help build your company culture and help your business thrive.Offer a Trial Period

Firing people costs your business a lot of money, so do not commit to a new hire right away. It’s best to create a short-term contract in the beginning that lasts between three and six months so that you can ensure your candidate will perform the way you expect them to. Actually putting someone into the role and seeing how they do is also the best indicator of how they will perform overall at a company. It also gives you a way to make sure they fit in well with the company culture.Be Welcoming

The best way to ensure a new hire will fit in, enjoy their new job, and work hard is to make sure like they feel as if they are a part of the company family. Here at Kabbage, we send out new hire emails to every employee when we add someone new. The email includes their name, where they are from, and a fun fact. We also have weekly company-wide meetings, and we introduce all new hires there. Assign someone to be the new hire’s “big brother/sister” at the company to make him or her feel welcome. This is a good way to keep your new hires. If someone feels awkward going to work every day or like they do not fit in, they are not likely to stay long. Move Loot, a new furniture start-up in San Francisco sends their new hires a messenger the day before their first day full of Move Loot goodies to make them feel welcome!

Hiring employees is an extremely important part of building your business. Your employees make up the basis of your company and will exhibit your core values and ideals. Making sure you are hiring the right people can make all the difference in how your business is perceived by customers (no one likes a grumpy sales associate) and vendors alike. Make sure you are ready to hire before you start searching for candidates, be sure to interview your candidates more than once so that you can get a feel for their personality, and give them a test run to make sure they fit in well. What other recruiting methods have worked for you?

Kabbage is here not only to provide access to the small business funding you need, but to also help you grow your business through free marketing tips, webinars, tools and more. Is there something you'd like us to cover or want to get your small business featured on our blog? Send us a note at content@kabbage.com.